Commissioned as part of the 2000 Seen By… millennium project, The Hole, Tsai
Ming-Liang’s 1998 feature, takes place at the turn of the millennium amid the
pandemonium of a mysterious, rapidly spreading virus that’s confounding the
health community. Declaring a state of emergency, officials have ordered
residents to evacuate the afflicted area, and have warned that services such as
water will be shut off soon. The widespread exodus has left the city nearly
deserted.

The action largely takes place in an apartment building where a woman, played by
Yang Kuei-Mei, is besieged by severe plumbing issues apparently originating from
the apartment of the man, played by Lee Kang-Sheng, above her. The plumber she’s
enlisted visits the man upstairs to track down the leak. The job is never
completed and a gaping hole is left in her ceiling, exposing the personal spaces
of the as-yet-unacquainted neighbors.

In a conventional romance, this would be the happy accident that unites, by way
of the persistent pressure of proximity, the incompatible couple by fateful
convenience through a series of comic incidents. In the world of Tsai Ming-Liang,
however, we get a dramatic departure from convention and insistent genre, and at
the same time, a continuation of his exploration of societal dysfunction and the
loneliness that arises from the ensuing alienation.

Although this does not look 'terrible', it is non-anamorphic and
non-progressive and has combing in all horizontal motion sequences (see
captures below). Other than that it is a little soft, but the colors
look good and there doesn't appear to be excessive manipulation. The 2.0
audio is fine and of limited usage in the film. Some text screen extras
are better than nothing and are typical of Fox / Lorber's previous DVD
production output. I actually think this may be an improvement with the
awful yellow removable subtitles. I think there may be another
DVD release out there of this film and I will seek it out for
comparison.

I had forgotten how wonderful this
film is. My 2nd favorite of Tsai's after Vive
L'Amour. A real joy to behold. If I had to choose one
image to represent as an anthem for DVDBeaver's existence it would be
the last large capture of this review. We wish the image
quality and package were better but we still strongly recommend the
film.